muppetfandomcom-20200223-history
Talk:Don Music
Don's only "non-parody" One of the last Don Music sketches has him working on the Alphabet Song--most of which can't/shouldn't be changed on a show that teaches letters. Instead of his usual problem (finding suitable rhymes), Don occasionally forgets a letter--only to be interrupted by characters who give blatant, punning hints. Each of the forgotten letters has a name that sounds like an ordinary word, as follows: #"G" comes to mind after Kermit makes a remark beginning with "Gee, Mr. Music..." #"I" comes to mind after a doctor and patient enter Don's studio; the patient complains that he has something in his eye. #"T" comes to mind after a group of golfers enter the studio, asking for directions to the seventeenth tee. #"Y" comes to mind after a pair of comedians enter the studio, asking the riddle "Why does a fireman wear red suspenders?" "I don't know, why?" Although this sketch abandons the usual formula for Don's new lyrics, one typical detail remains unchanged: after Don completes the song, a band pops up in his studio and performs it. ISNorden 16:24, 12 July 2006 (UTC) Unsourced Italian info Mirella posted this paragraph on the Italian version of Don Music. There is some question about the reliability of her contributions, so I'm parking this here for now. -- Danny (talk) 15:53, 16 May 2006 (UTC) :On Italy's Piazza Sesamo a slight variation of Don Music named Maestro Salieri appears, usually in tandem with Luciano Papperotti, a duck based variation of tenor Luciano Pavarotti. It is Papperotti who is always stumbling through a tune while Salieri tries to correct him only to bash his head against the piano keys in frustration. Salieri's unnamed mother has also been known to enter trying to feed the skinny Salieri only to have Papperotti somehow end up with the food. The real Pavarotti at a "Pavarotti and Friends" concert was shocked when comedian Roberto Benigni interupted Pavarotti's performance of Cavalleria Rusticana, gesticulating wildly, and rambling on for minutes, claiming that the tenor had made "grave errors" until finally smashing his head against the keyboards of a piano. The reference was lost on few. Source on head-banging pre-schoolers I added a quote from Sesame Street Unpaved to back up Don being dropped because kids were imitating his head-banging. Still, that's always sounded like an urban legend to me. Lots of Sesame characters were dropped from the show just because the writers and producers didn't feel like having them on anymore, but fans always want some kind of gossipy "explanation" -- the character was seen as a stereotype, or kids were getting the wrong lesson. Plus, the Unpaved quote uses the word "apparently", which says to me that Borgenicht wasn't even sure that was true. So I'm kind of skeptical. Is there another source for why Don was dropped? -- Danny Toughpigs 12:49, 26 January 2006 (UTC) :I know that old segments with Don Music continued to be shown after Richard Hunt died in 1992. Don Music sketches were shown in new episodes untill at least season 29, which is when the Sesame Street Unpaved book was in development. It's possible that the writer of the book was told that Don Music segments were no longer going to be on the show after season 29 and the writer decided to go ahead and explain his disapearance then. I haven't seen any Don Music segments in any new episodes made after season 29, and I've seen most of the season 30 episodes. Richard Hunt's death is most likely the reason why he no longer appears in new sketches, though the death of Richard Hunt wasn't brought up at all. --Minor muppetz 14:29, 26 January 2006 (UTC) ::Thanks, Michael! That's exactly the kind of information I was looking for. Awesome! Do you want to add that to the article? -- Danny Toughpigs 14:40, 26 January 2006 (UTC) :::I added that info to the article. I would also like to point out that the featured creature bio on Don Music at the old henson.com webpage mentioned that he was famous for getting fired because of kids banging their heads on the piano, so Sesame Street Unpaved is not the only official source for this information. --Minor muppetz 15:11, 26 January 2006 (UTC) ::::I wonder if Henson.com got their information from Sesame Unpaved... -- Danny Toughpigs 17:49, 26 January 2006 (UTC) :::::I was wondering that too. After all, Don Music's featured creature bio was added there sometime after the book was released. --Minor muppetz 22:55, 26 January 2006 (UTC) :::::: As the novice here, would someone explain to me why something like this isn't better suited in the rumors category, seeing as it is largely speculation, even with a source stating such.--Draw a Triangle 21:30, 5 May 2006 (UTC) :::::::Why Don isn't on the show anymore is an interesting and relevant piece of information about the character. If it was just our own speculation, then it wouldn't be appropriate for the wiki -- but since we have a semi-official printed source, that's good enough. -- Danny (talk) 21:56, 5 May 2006 (UTC) ::::::::The fact that the shows' format change, beginning with Season 30, is a factor worth noting. Among the changes was to have shorter "insert" skits and less of them, while focusing more on the storyline of the "street". (Later seasons would lump all, if not most, most of the street story uninterrupted.) Skits with Don Music and Kermit did tend to be relatively long, at least compared to say, a Grover/kid segment. -- David Splurge 16:47, 16 June 2006 (UTC) :::::::::Can I ask why it seems like people are looking for a way to discredit this information? There are two sources, both of which had to get through some sort of Henson or Sesame information czar. The "apparently" is related to what the parents said. It's impossible to confirm that kids were banging their heads on pianos, but it is possible to confirm the complaints, which he states unambiguously. Isn't this usually enough? -- Peter (talk) 17:12, 16 June 2006 (UTC)